Tire Rotation?

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How important is it to rotate your tires? I have heard everything on both ends of the spectrum.

Unilateral tires aside, does it really help with wear much?

What about FWD vs RWD vs AWD?

Thanks.
 
Don't be fooled. They rotate every time you drive. Seriously, you do need to get it done. Others will tell you why.
 
I do mine every 10,000 miles and the tires last a long time. I'm just too lazy to do it every 5K and I'm too cheap to pay someone to do it.
 
BMW recommends that tires not be rotated.

I can see their point. If you are paying someone else to rotate, it doesn't make economic sense. Getting an extra few thousand miles of use isn't worth the cost (even if it is just time spent waiting) or risk of handling anomalies.

I personally don't think that conclusion applies when there is no extra effort or expense. I sometimes take my wheels off just to clean the insides and look for unexpected problems.
 
BMW says no rotate.....guessing here but probably when they started paying for these items under warranty. Amazing how trans fluid became "lifetime" and on and on.....

Anyway, tire rotation depends upon the tire in use and the vehicle. 95 Camry in my sig gets Vadersteins.....I got 35k+ outa my set. According to my tire guy, who sells a lot of tires!!!! This is 1500 more than max and 5k more than normal outa these. Rotation made a huge difference with this all silicon tire.

Sometimes a vehicle has 2 much toe or camber you can't really fix and it has an effect. Is what it is time.

Just saying overall if you can do tire rotation every 5k yourself then its a bonus. If paying 20 bux each time.....way out the cost and maybe cheaper long run to replace earlier. All depends upon tire chosen.
 
Hyundai says every 7500 miles. Tire companies know this, so they don't warranty their tires for treadwear if the manufacturer recommendations are not followed.
Also keep in mind that the tires under torque wear different than those that freewheel. Freewheeling will lead to feathering over time. Tires under torque and added weight and stress wear tread faster.
 
A rotation at Sears was $13.50. Not too bad. Many places are giving you lifetime tire rotation/balancing if you buy 4 tires from them.

It may also pick up some early tire wear problems. And they get inflated properly.

For the average driver, its a good idea even if its a wash on the cost vs extra tire life.
 
Hello, The outside edges of front tires wear as they're pushed sideways to change the car's direction.
Rotating tires spreads that wear to all 4 tires and allows you to get "your money's worth" out of the available tread. It's really kind of basic.

Obviously the cost of rotation has to be factored in. It can be easier and cheaper to say, "just put 2 on". That's a basic concept too.

The job doesn't take me any time at all. I get the "20%" more mileage. If I need to sell a car, all the tires are evenly worn, identical and no shoulders are conspicuously bare.

INSPIRATIONAL ANECDOTE: My sister's Jeep had an original unused spare. It was a matching alloy to boot.
I included that "old" tire in the rotation scheme and it kept her from having to buy a set before she sold the car.
That saved money and enabled her to get a better price. Her pert Jeep was made more tidy by even tires. Kira
 
My Sonata (front wheel drive, manual tranny) wears the fronts at twice the rate of the rears. Rotating them keeps wear even which keeps my handling, wet and snow traction consistent. Soem vehicles (especially AWD get really messed up if there is significant difference between the axles. My father in law didn't rotate. His center diff burnt up on his CRV and cost him $1000+. The front tires wore out, rears had 1/2 tread, the CRV senses slip between and the fluid heats up to force torque to the rears. Unfortunately since thet are spinning at different speeds it never does. Expensive lesson for him.
 
My experience is front wheel drive compacts and mini-vans are rough on tires. My truck not so much. I pay $18.00 here for a rotation. My daughters Accent is rough on tires with her driving like Earnhardt.
 
I measure tread depth and rotate when ft to back difference exceeds ~ 2/32 inch. This happens about 8-12,000 miles. I go to my local Walmarts where they use a torque wrench to tighten lug nuts-no kidding and this for $12 + tax. ed
 
$40 gets you a tire rotation, $0 gets you no one touching your car and messing stuff up. I choose the low cost option.
 
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Originally Posted By: BISCUT
BMW says no rotate.....guessing here but probably when they started paying for these items under warranty.

BMW claims that rotating tires may cause undesirable handling issues. Typically, a BMW will have a good amount of negative rear camber which will cause it's rear tires to wear unevenly. Now throw these unevenly worn tires on the front, and all of a sudden your Ultimate Driving Machine's handling gets out of whack, at least in theory...

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/2104815/Re:_BMW_Tire_Rotation#Post2104815
 
Originally Posted By: hardcore302
How important is it to rotate your tires? I have heard everything on both ends of the spectrum.

Unilateral tires aside, does it really help with wear much?

What about FWD vs RWD vs AWD?

Thanks.


Here's a great article on TireRack.com that should answer all your questions: Tire Rotation Instructions

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i normally thought BMW's reason again rotation were because the wheels and/or tires were staggered.

I just rotate whenever i can, which is once a year.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
A rotation at Sears was $13.50. Not too bad. Many places are giving you lifetime tire rotation/balancing if you buy 4 tires from them.

It may also pick up some early tire wear problems. And they get inflated properly.

For the average driver, its a good idea even if its a wash on the cost vs extra tire life.

I know places that will give a lifetime rotation/balance on tires even if you bought two. Last time I bought a pair of tires to replace the fronts on a FWD car that hadn't been rotated before. They balanced the tires I bought elsewhere, brushed the rust on the rotors, and rotated for me.

Once I bought a pair of tires elsewhere and they would have rotated. Some shops I know simply have courtesy rotations and never even asked to see a receipt or get any proof of where I bought them.

As for my cars, I like to do something to keep them fairly close for my Subaru, but the negative camber on the rears seem to cause a lot of inside shoulder wear. I heard that may be a problem with a lot of BMWs too, although most are RWD.
 
BMW stated that to keep the excellent handling they recommended rotating every 3,000 miles. However; for a daily driver the cost would be prohibitive so now they recommend no rotating.
 
The reasons I rotate my tires on a regular basis, are already explained in the Tire Rack link that was shared above. First, after many sets of tires in my lifetime, I have found that a set of tires lasts much longer when I have them rotated on a regular basis. My practice has been to take my cars in for tire rotation shortly after each oil change. That works out to be about every 6,500 to 7,500 miles, depending on the car.

The second, and really important reason, is that most tire manufacturers will not honor tread wear warranties if you don't rotate tires regularly. This has paid off big time for me in the past. Pirelli paid almost 1/2 the price of my last set of Michelin tires, because of tread wear warranty. I wouldn't have gotten a dime if the tires had not been rotated regularly. I have been told by tire installers, that tire companies such as Pirelli, who's tires rarely make the claimed tread wear, depend upon owners who don't rotate regularly, and don't make warranty claims.

Comments about the expense of having tires rotated are foreign to me. If you are paying to have your tires rotated, you have bought them at the wrong tire store. I have never paid to have my tires rotated. In fact Discount Tire rotates the tires on my '13 Subaru Outback for free, even though it still has the factory tires on it. My Subaru dealership occasionally sends me coupons for free tire rotation, as does the local Big O tire store, a Western tire store chain. Why would anyone pay to have tires rotated? And why would anyone pass on rotating tires because they are too busy to do it themselves, unless they are one of those who don't like others to perform maintenance on their car?
 
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When you are under the car every 10,000km, may as well swap the tyres around.

Have just bought a proper spare wheel for my Nissan, and can do a 5 tyre rotation...with a steel spare, the spare made it to 10 years and 300 miles...a waste
 
Originally Posted By: djb
I can see their point. If you are paying someone else to rotate, it doesn't make economic sense.

With that, I definitely agree. Infiniti/Nissan up here wants $100 to rotate tires (because they are instructed to reset TPMS sensors, which isn't needed since these systems don't show which tire is low anyhow) and others want $30. And, if you do it every 10,000 km (as is commonly recommended), that's more than a set of brand new tires wasted on rotation during a conservative lifespan of 100,000 km.

I do rotate tires, but I do it myself.
 
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